Shawn S

I’ve seen this mentioned several times when talking about BAD driving practices or accidents, but never saw an entire thread dedicated to it.

Here is what I do:
If traffic is light and the onramp is reasonably long, I accelerate to at least 30-40MPH and “merge” in with traffic.

If traffic is really heavy, I STOP at the beginning of the ramp and wait until I see an opening coming up that is at least a car length or two in size.
When I see the opening coming, I accelerate to match traffic and slide into the hole.

Once and a while when I do the second method I get some A-Hole that comes up behind and starts honking the horn like I don’t know what I’m doing.

If you don’t STOP and there is nowhere to pull out, you end up all the way at the end of the onramp and have to pull into traffic going like 5-MPH.
I see people do this quite often and have witnessed more then a few accidents from people pulling into 60-70MPH traffic from the end of the ramp.

How do you guys do it???

Shawn S

6speed

Onramps back east are often short, especially in Philly. Out here in CA you get plenty of room to match freeway speed. That is the key, get up to the speed of traffic and you can slip right in. If you hesitate you are screwed. You gotta gun it.

mdaniel

Exactly. WOT to match the freeway speed. Then at the chicken point, one of you has to slow down and let the other go ahead.

Scrib

My weekly business excursions bring me out to Philly, and the on-ramps are MUCH shorter than the Chicago area... I make it a point to find a Grand Prix GT or something with some balls to it as I really don't want to get run over...

Otherwise, when I'm home in the CL, is more of a 'game time' decision. Basically, if I gotta move I've got the power to do so. Otherwise, it's just a nice gradual merge. Unless I'm all hopped up and I wanna floor it.

Nashua_Night_Hawk

Rt-1 HW in Saugass, MA, has stop sign/entrance ramps with no-on ramps at all... You merge to a 50+MPH flow from stop... worse it is a 2-lane and no left or right shoulders!!!!

Scooter

Shawn, im so ashamed of u!! u r a poor excuse for a driver of a 6-speed CL-S j/k
launch it!!!

NY drivers are so "skillful" partly b/c we know how to merge at 70-80...that's 1 good thing about the Long Island Expressway, is that the ramps are long, giving u ample room to get up to speed...Northern State ferget it...bout 30 feet of ramp and THAT'S IT!!

4thGSi

Turn signal then WOT it!!!

Shawn S

Yes, in PA the on ramps tend to be quite short.
On many of the older intersections the same asphalt real estate is used for BOTH onramp & off ramp.
So you need to worry about cars getting OFF the highway as well.

I’ve been to California several times on business & vacation and I’m quite familiar with the “floor it and pray” method.

Shawn S

mdaniel

I compare it to a cat shot off a carrier. You MUST pass stall speed in the minimum distance or you're screwed. No time for indecision.

thholr

I think stopping is the worst decision, at least from what I have seen. Usually you get up to a respectable speed and merge over , the drivers in that lane should be expecting you to come over and either move out of the way or slow down for you . But stopping causes a lot of problems at least here in georgia it does. I would say speed up and turn you rblinker on and merge.

Zapata

Skillfull? Crazy yes. Skillfull, no.

IntegraVT

iTrader: (1)

DOT here in Jersey loves to put stop signs at the end of entrance ramps to interstate highways when there's some construction.

There's nothing like merging with ~70MPH I-80 traffic from a dead stop to get your blood flowing in the morning. (Oh, and there's no shoulder either.)

danny25

I was just there a month ago. I had never seen a highway like that, they treat it like it's just a normal road, except people are going 60 and there are no lights to make a break in traffic. You pretty much just have to cut someone off if you ever want to get on the highway.

wissahickon

I live in the philly the on ramps are extremely short, especially on the schuylkill expressway (I76). The best thing to do is gun it at the beginning of the ramp and force your way in going 70-80mph. Too many people go real slow down the ramp then end up having to make a complete stop on the 30 foot long area to merge, and there is no way they can get up to speed fast enough so they have to sit there and wait until there is a huge opening, which there rarely is, since a lot of the on ramps merge into the left lane.

mffdvr

I can't believe you STOP?!?! Are you serious?! Hmmmm.....I can't imagien that being much safer than merging a tthe speed of the traffic. Ever heard of beign rear-ended?! Hmmmmm.....what works for ya though......

CLUofI

NOO, you are one of those people who i nearly hit every few months. Use the onramp to accelerate and match the speed of the traffic, then slip in. If you stop on the on ramp, you are going to get rear ended by people looking to find an opening to get in.

JasonT

I gun it, & push my way in. If I cut someone off tough!

fbazakos

Shawn ... if you see a white ford explorer behind you ... do not stop at the top of the ramp.

91Legend

I think that it is against the law to stop in the "ACCELERATION LANE" (or on-ramp), at least in CA. People that decide to slow the whole freeway down b/c they need a red carpet to get into traffic really piss me off. They usually never look into their mirrors to see the crowd behind them, and when they get the balls to pull out, they decide to either cut everyone off, or go too slow for traffic. If you are too scared to merge onto a freeway and need someone hold your hand, then you probably shouldn't be driving. Sorry for the harshness, but this is one of my pet peaves. :thumbsdn:

ferizzo

Gunning it is the best way to go. Usually the people in the right lane on the highway will not be going that fast so at least use the on ramp to level yourself with their speed. I personally cannot stand when someone is going very slowly on an on-ramp or stops at the end (I can understand if you have to but it is usually not necessary). I sometimes fall way behind that person and when they merge I gun up the ramp.

EricS

I agree wholeheartly. Its my #1 driving pet peeve. #2 is people driving too slow & not passing anyone in the hammer lane. If you ain't passing anyone move the hell over.

Busabud

Your method of waiting for hole is crazy ! Even if you did find a hole, want's to prevent someone else for taking the spot or the hole closing up?? Move ! People will let you in at some point. You can slow down faster than you can speed up. I would be pissed if a car in front of me STOPPED on an empty on-ramp. Just go....end of story.

momentum3.2

sounds like a personal problem

seriously speaking though, what's your average speed? down here in the south driving on both atlanta and birmingham highways, I hit 90-95mph daily going back and forth to the office...

what about you guys?

Gabo3k

I WOT at all freeway entrances, just to get my baby juiced up. Light up VTEC on 1,2, and 3. Then I have to slow down to merge.

Can't help it, that roar from the engine bay turns me on.

When my girl rides, she says "kill it (the throtle)" She loves to have her neck exercised.

Shawn S

Once again I’m regretting being HONEST on this forum.
I don’t believe for one minute that some of you FLOOR IT at every onramp.

And I’m not talking about stopping at the END of the ramp, I’m talking about the BEGINNING, giving me plenty of room to accelerate.
If someone rear-ends me there, I’ll be showing you guys pictures of my new NSX when I get out of my Lawyers office.

The particular ramp I’m talking about has a guardrail at the end of the onramp followed by a CONCRETE WALL.
If you’re doing 70MPH and no one lets you in…..YOU ARE FUCKED !!!!!

For any locals, I’m talking about RT-145 South getting onto RT-22 East right by the Lehigh Valley Mall.

Shawn S

Edub-TL

Well, here in the Bay Area, we have many Suicide exits..

these are the ones where the people exiting the freeway are crossing the people entering the freeway.. don't know why idiot thought of them.. but I think they are to save space instead of having the long ass on/off ramps..
That's probably why traffic is so terrible here.. people entering and exiting at the same time.. the right lane is always blocked up..

But sometimes, you just have to grab those grapefruits and cut people off..

JRock

Same here.

TRIFFSABRAT

I normally accelerate to the prevailing traffic speed plus 10 mph. This makes is obvious to those in the flow that you ARE going to merge. Then, since you can brake much harder than you can accelerate, I tap the pedal and slide into the best looking gap I can find. This usually outfoxes those who feel compelled to "close the gap" when they see you attempting to merge. It's just good physics.

TakeFlight

I subscribe to that method and I live in PA.

Of course, the highways that I'm usually getting on (turnpike and blue route) have decent enough on ramps where you can get up to highway speed. I rarely merge onto a highway doing less than 50-60MPH.

But yeah, you do have to watch out for those suicide on ramps that merge with an off ramp.

codehead

Two words: Pasadena Freeway

kHmER Co

Same here.. ALMOST.. I usually check traffic.. accel to traffic speed.. then mash the gas to pass up whoever and get my ass in..

codehead

Ok, I'm sure mdaniel knows, but for some of you outside California:

The Pasadena Freeway (not the real name, but what everyone calls it) is the oldest freeway in the WORLD.

Opened in 1940, it's pretty twisty--too much for modern driving speeds but that doesn't stop anyone--and can get pretty tightly packed in rush hour at full speed. Getting in and out of full speed rush hour is insane because the ramps are always short and heavily curved. When you exit, the stop sign is just there in no time, and floor-it-and-pray is the only method for getting on. Some of the former "on ramps" are sealed because they weren't ramps at all--just stop signs in front of the freeway.

The Pasadena has to be the nuttiest and hairiest thing on earth when it's close packed and full speed.

(It's been awhile--I forget if it's still limited to 55 mph after they raised the national limit. Might be--I do remember being on it at 55 in rush hour and it was lunacy--don't think it could handle 65.)

codehead

OK, sorry to pop up again, but had to post this tidbit--did a google search that came up with http://home.iccas.com/jimhull/Pasadena_Freeway.html:

HOW TO GET TO L.A. FROM PASADENA DURING RUSH HOUR

an except:

"Enter this modern paradise of transportation first by coming to a dead halt at a posted stopsign at the foot of the perilously tiny onramp. Wait there - craning your neck - for an opening in the hurtling traffic before risking your life in a breakneck acceleration that - you pray - gets you up to speed before you're crushed by the onrushing traffic behind you. DO NOT, repeat, do not pull into traffic only to stop your car, like a deer in headlights, to see whether that onrushing vehicle in your rearview mirror will fail to screach to a halt in time to avoid striking you. (Someone actually did that to me on this freeway.) Overcome your lurid fascination with your own possible doom, and ACCELERATE!"

bnavarro

"Here is what I do:
If traffic is light and the onramp is reasonably long, I accelerate to at least 30-40MPH and “merge” in with traffic.

If traffic is really heavy, I STOP at the beginning of the ramp and wait until I see an opening coming up that is at least a car length or two in size.
When I see the opening coming, I accelerate to match traffic and slide into the hole.

Once and a while when I do the second method I get some A-Hole that comes up behind and starts honking the horn like I don’t know what I’m doing.

If you don’t STOP and there is nowhere to pull out, you end up all the way at the end of the onramp and have to pull into traffic going like 5-MPH.
I see people do this quite often and have witnessed more then a few accidents from people pulling into 60-70MPH traffic from the end of the ramp." Shawn S

i with u man

Scooter, don't know if u remember, but when they were working on the northern state, by the wantah pkway. Post Ave entrance had a stop sign at the end and then it was 5 feet to the pkway. good thing i had a mustang (5.0 notchback) at the time.

bnavarro

by the way, how do u quote people

sorry to change subject

jwzzz

In Houston , several freeways have traffic signals on the entry ramps. They only let one car on at a time. You have to enter the ramp from a complete stop. It's the dumbest thing yet. They say it increases traffic flow. It's a complete waste of money,and makes it difficult to merge with traffic.

Shawn S

Shawn S

BBsAcuraRacing

.

Austin519

Out here in Austin, TX...there pretty much are no onramps...just a yield sign and then you're on...so I just floor it and merge...smart drivers know to stay out of the right lane on the highway for mergers...

Austin519

EricS

and Austin is the worst place I've been in for people that don't know how to merge properly (aka ShawnS's :P )